Second funding bid for new Stafford history centre
Staffordshire County Council is hoping a fresh bid for lottery funding for a new history centre will prove second time lucky – and is also asking for more time to build the venue.
Supporters of the Staffordshire History Centre project were disappointed when a bid for £3.9 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund was turned down in October 2018.
But all was not lost and now a revised application is set to be submitted at the end of this month.
Staffordshire County Council’s Archives and Heritage Service and the William Salt Library Trust are spearheading the £5.7m project, which aims to showcase centuries of the county’s history in Stafford town centre.
The county council’s cabinet is being asked to approve resubmission of the funding application at its meeting this week.
If the new bid proves successful it will be supported by £1.8m of fundraising – including more than £700,000 already secured so far.
Library building extension
This week’s cabinet decision follows an application to Stafford Borough Council last week for a new extension and remodelling of Staffordshire Records Office and William Salt Library.
Planning permission for the improvements to the Eastgate Street site was granted by the borough council in June 2018.
But resubmitting the plans will give the county council more time for the work to be carried out and prevent it from incurring additional costs at a later stage, a spokesman for the authority said.
The plans for the centre include demolition of an existing modern extension to the William Salt Library.
A new single-storey entrance and exhibition space are set to be created, as well as a three-storey strong room extension.
The project will bring together three separate collections and services, the county council has said, and will include a programme of activities and collections taken out into communities.
The exhibition space will display rare archives, books and museum pieces, while more than six million records will be available to view in the new centre and online.
Gill Heath, Cabinet Member for Communities at Staffordshire County Council said: “We have a fascinating history here in Staffordshire and our collections are of outstanding quality and importance.
"We are extremely proud to be custodians of such invaluable items and want to be able to protect them for future generations to enjoy.
“If our new bid for funding for the project is successful, it will provide new ways in which collections can be used by individuals, historians and communities and will secure access to historic collections for the next 20 years.”
